I think there is a little bit of "black and white" fallacy happening here. There isn't an "either/or" when it comes to an idea and executing. An idea without execution is nothing, but executing without an idea is also nothing. Successful people have an idea, and they execute.
Value is created by doing
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Re: Value is created by doing
#72All advice is a two-way street. I think at this point, the proverbial "advice market" is saturated with this idea that "doing" is far superior to "thinking". This is because, traditionally, hackers tend to lie squarely on the "thinking too much" end of the spectrum. I'm interested to read at least one post on the opposite advice -- what happens when you're too heavy on the "doing" end of the spectrum? Are there examp…
"what happens when you're too heavy on the "doing" end of the spectrum?"
I can't think of a startup, but I can think of people like that. The first people that come to mind are the Mythbuster people. Very handy, very good at cranking out their ideas into meat-space - but my impression is that there is very very little critical thinking. This is probably in large part due to the demands of TV (You need cool gadgets and experiments - who cares if the experiment is poorly conceived when it looks cool?)
But a lot of hobbyists also fall in to that category: doing projects that have already been done, or ones where the solution isn't particularly intellectually exciting/innovative/stimulating but just mostly takes a bunch of time (ex: spending your weekend programming a PLD to control a stop light).
It's kinda hard to accuse these people of "doing" too much.. b/c doing is better than just sitting watching TV. But say instead of programming a stoplight all weekend you for instance read some textbooks and learning some higher level math, or read some blogs to get some inspiration, or read some scifi to get in a more creative mood - It gets kinda harder to make an objective comparison of which is "better".
Re: Value is created by doing
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
> what happens when you're too heavy on the "doing" end of the spectrum? technical debt
I believe the best solution right now may be to get an MVP without worrying about technical debt too much while not purposely doing things to step on your own feet while acknowledging you'll need to do a full rewrite before 1.0.
Technical debt is like real debt. In the grand scheme of things it's bad, but there are times when it makes sense to borrow from your future.
Re: Value is created by doing
#74This definition of value ignores ancillary departments such as marketing, office management, HR, and legal. These are sometimes known as "cost centers" in a business organization, but in that they support the engineers/artists/makers, they most definitely are creating value. Sometimes the chain can be long, but it's usually present.
Re: Value is created by doing
#75In business, money is how we keep score. Like in a game, the score doesn't lie. i do not mean to imply that money is the ultimate why: money is rarely why we do what we do. But in this game of business, it is the score. If you're not making money by doing it, its a hobby. There is nothing wrong with hobbies, but they aren't business. Want to know if you are heading in the right direction? Are you headed towards money…
I don't believe money is 1:1 with value. Consider for example a "Craigslist Flipper" - someone who finds items for sale on Craigslist, buys them, and turns around and sells them for a profit. Did this person create value? Not at all; I would argue they created negative wealth in the world. See also: people who run window installation companies and go around breaking people's windows at night.
Re: Value is created by doing
#76What work is for an investor and an entrepreneur are quite different. As PG says entrepreneurs should "Live in the future, then build what’s missing." Investors allocate capital to what will be more valuable in the future: whether it is something that is missing now or whether it is something that will simply continue to grow in value. Venture Capital is an interesting middle ground because not only do you allocate c…
I don't know much about his origins, but surely that's not how he used his time when he was getting started, is it?
I'm guessing his work activities were far more conventional (though still well selected) and only after building wealth did his time allocation change.
Re: Value is created by doing
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe the best solution right now may be to get an MVP without worrying about technical debt too much while not purposely doing things to step on your own feet while acknowledging you'll need to do a full rewrite before 1.0.
Technical debt is like real debt. In the grand scheme of things it's bad, but there are times when it makes sense to borrow from your future.
I used to think that way, then I realized that I should worry about building a product people will pay for before worrying too much about technical debt.
It's almost a Maserati problem when you think about it.
Re: Value is created by doing
#78All advice is a two-way street. I think at this point, the proverbial "advice market" is saturated with this idea that "doing" is far superior to "thinking". This is because, traditionally, hackers tend to lie squarely on the "thinking too much" end of the spectrum. I'm interested to read at least one post on the opposite advice -- what happens when you're too heavy on the "doing" end of the spectrum? Are there examp…
I am of the opinion that "ideas are nothing, execution is everything" grows in part out of the lack of adequate language and mental models to distinguish amongst ideas of the armchair politician variety and ideas with legs. There are some words to distinguish such things, like hypothesis and theorem, but they mostly don't apply in the realm of business. I have been trying to sort out how to do a post on that very top…
I think it should be rephrased "Ideas are nothing without execution".
Re: Value is created by doing
#79I realize this is pointed out in the original post but it's important to state for those of us who only read comments and headlines. The longer I do this the more I believe that value isn't created by doing. It's created by selling. As hackers and engineers the idea of "creating value by doing" resonates with us. We're happy to hole up in a dark room and create. It feels great. Wish I could do that for the rest of my…
Creating value is how many people you effect and how strongly you effect them (positively).
Getting money is multiplying value by business.
Re: Value is created by doing
#80All advice is a two-way street. I think at this point, the proverbial "advice market" is saturated with this idea that "doing" is far superior to "thinking". This is because, traditionally, hackers tend to lie squarely on the "thinking too much" end of the spectrum. I'm interested to read at least one post on the opposite advice -- what happens when you're too heavy on the "doing" end of the spectrum? Are there examp…
"what happens when you're too heavy on the "doing" end of the spectrum?" I can't think of a startup, but I can think of people like that. The first people that come to mind are the Mythbuster people. Very handy, very good at cranking out their ideas into meat-space - but my impression is that there is very very little critical thinking. This is probably in large part due to the demands of TV (You need cool gadgets an…
Experiments?
When I go to the circus and watch a lion NOT eating the lion tamer, I can't conclude 100% of the lions won't eat people.